February 2006 Archives

I have not got the time nor the energy to write much more than an alive and well message. Mary and I have been working many hours on getting a new product line (Yay!) programmed and put together for a particular client and it is just about ready to take off. My days and nights have been spent at the keyboard, cutting code, designing pages, and testing tables. The good thing is that Mary, as usual, has put together a database that rocks! From the years that I worked with hierarchical data structures (IMS/DB for you old heavy iron coders), I always used to think that relational databases were for those who could not program. Well, I was wrong. I have become a SQL head. Not that I would ever give up the experience of working with older technology - a good foundation - it is so much more pleasant working with tables. I have to get back on schedule with my schoolwork and research that got sidetracked over the past couple of weeks, but it has been worth it getting the work done. Well, I have got to get to class (studying has got to get back into the routine...) and get home so we can celebrate Dan's 22nd birthday!

Yes, frustration! A gazillion modules of reusable code and CPAN.pm is at times a pain in the butt to use. Before all the perl flames begin, perl is my first language of choice these days. Actually, it has ben for quite a while since I can't write in 360/370 assembler language on a UNIX box :-). Anyway, installing modules is usually a breeze using the stock console interface: perl -MCPAN -e shell I say usually since it is a very straightforward process:

1. Find out about some module (i some::module)
2. Install some module (install some::module)
3. Clean up after you're done (clean some::module)

And all is fine. Well, except if you get strung along on prerequisities that never seem to end or even worse won't install on your particular flavor of operating system. Oh well, that is the problem with a language that you can basically get to run on just about anything. That is one particular reason why I love perl so much. I can run it on my UNIX/Linux-based servers, as well as my Windows laptop. Programs I write pretty much will run on both with few exceptions. Everything fine, you say? Well, that is where the problems begin. My major gripe about loading modules from CPAN is that when you run into trouble and get around to RTFM, there is none. Sure, there is the POD in the CPAN.pm module, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Even doing the Google search, you come up with a wide range of fragmented comments, complaints, and wouldn't it be nice entries as well as a similar set of pages about CPANPLUS, the future of CPAN.pm (which hasn't been touched since last summer). Oh well, instead of bitching more, I have added a category called CPAN to record some of these fragments and organize them. No more frustration hoepfully. Back to coding like a savage!

Just trying out a nifty (I hope) posting tool called Deepest Sender, a Firefox extension. If this works, it is another easy way to post and, with my current level of being busy, may actually help me post more frequently. We'll see!

I started using Gmail, not so much for the gazillion bytes I can leave out there, but more for the fact that it seemed to be the least spam free. Now it appears that this is no longer a fact. Yes, I get little (1-2 messages a week) spam, but it appears that the spamblockers, such as SpamCop, have raised their shields against all of Gmail's mail servers. Well, if you are going to use that philosophy, they should have done this to AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail, and all the rest of the free email domains, as well as every mail server in China, India, Taiwan, and Pakistan. It was lucky that I caught this because I use my Gmail routinely to contact clients. No more since I can't afford to have those communications blocked. We use SpamAssasin, but have the spam flagged and filtered off to a folder, similar to what Gmail does, since we know that spam filtering is not perfect (actually SA is pretty damn good) and you still need the human factor.

Between school and a ton of new business (yippee!), I have been busier than ever. Today, I am taking a few extra minutes with my weekly-or-so maintenance with all of our machines to insure that all the defense systems are up-to-date in preparation for the supposed virus attack scheduled for this weekend. Not like it will affect us - all of our email is scanned before it ever gets here - but it is always good to be a bit extra cautious when the red flags are flying. Back to work - as usual - got to get things finished up early today because Mary and I are off to an evening of frivolity at the township's annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet!